Suite Natured Cruise Cast | Cruise Chat & News

Is There Festive Spirit Aboard Cruises At Christmas - Audio Only 🎧 | Cruise Cast Ep.22

• Linzi & Mark - Suite Natured • Season 1 • Episode 22

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Going on a Cruise over the festive season, or even over Christmas itself can seem like a dream vacation, but do these festive cruises live up to the promise, or are you left feeling like you got a lump of coal in your stocking?

Just off of our Queen Victoria Christmas Markets Cruise in December 2024, we thought it was the perfect time of year to discuss these festive cruises on the Suite Natured Cruise Cast. 

As well we look at some of the more recent news stories and give our thoughts in the final cruise cast episode of 2024. 

Chapters
00:00 Setting the Festive Mood
01:28 First Impressions of Festive Cruising
10:07 Exploring Christmas Markets
17:04 Creating the Perfect Christmas Cruise
20:38 Cruise News and Updates

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Cheers, and have a lovely day
Linzi & Mark

Linzi:

Welcome to episode 22 of the S Natured Cruise Cast. Hi, I'm Linz. As always, I'm joined by Mikey. Hello, Hello. And today we're talking about what makes a festive cruise festive.

Mark:

But first a little mood music. Did that set the right mood?

Linzi:

It did, it did.

Mark:

It did so on the last cruise cast of the year. I've got some mood music that you like. That's right for the mood. The mood music sets the mood. Well, you like that's right for the mood.

Linzi:

The mood music sets the mood.

Mark:

Well done it's a christmas miracle. Oh my goodness, it is well. As you said, this is our um episode 22 cruise cast, where we're going to be talking about festive cruising yes, and we've got the usual sort of news stories that you don't know about as well, but with no cruise confession on this week. Okay, because I couldn't find a festive one that anyone had sent and it felt like I would just try to shoehorn into another one. We don't shoehorn anything in, nope, so the cruise confessions will be back in January, lovely, but we've just come off of Queen Victoria yes, on a Christmas markets cruise, and he can explain whom in a second and we thought, well, given that this is the last podcast before Christmas, what better time to talk about festive cruising? Yes, how do you want to kick it off?

Linzi:

I want to kick it off by saying first impressions of festive cruise. When we arrived and I feel this might be a thing for everyone who's excited and feeling Christmassy and getting on the ship we had a brass band Welcomeers playing Christmas carols, which were lovely. I'm going to give that a festive factor.

Mark:

Seven Is it out of ten?

Linzi:

It's out of ten.

Mark:

Okay, when you talk about festive cruising, obviously this can be an ocean cruise or it can be a river cruise.

Linzi:

Around the festive period.

Mark:

Around the festive period, so it doesn't necessarily have to be over the Christmas and New Year holidays.

Mark:

No, if there's a tree up, we're kind of classing it as festive yeah, and most of the cruise lines now seem to um decorate about the end of november. So last week in november they start to sort of get them ready. So if you want to get into that sort of festive spirit and get ready for the christmas holidays, yes, then it's a good time to go. Do you think that it's about if you, unless you wanted to actually go over the christmas period? We'll cover, we'll talk about that a bit later. Do you think going earlier in the festive period is better from a value perspective?

Linzi:

I would say but it depends what you want out of it, because we went it wasn't on our radar back in the autumn and then it was. It felt festive, but it wasn't okay. There was the brass band.

Mark:

And lots of decoration.

Linzi:

And I wonder, as you get more and more closer to Christmas Day whether they dial up the Christmases.

Mark:

Dial up the Christmases yeah because, when we arrived, I imagined stepping on board and being handed a mince pie.

Linzi:

Okay, that would have been nice. No, no mince pies, no mince, not a mince pie in sight on a festive Christmas cruise out of Southampton.

Mark:

There were no mince pies anywhere, not in the pub or in the buffet at any point that I noticed no mince pies. I'm not saying that there was never any mince pies in there. There was not one that I ever noticed.

Linzi:

No, no, mince pies no gingerbread men, no, no mince pies, no gingerbread men.

Mark:

No they weren't. No, stilton, there was blue cheese.

Linzi:

It's not.

Mark:

Stilton no, but you're being very specific. You're Christmassy, I feel.

Linzi:

Yeah, but I feel that that's a lot of Christmassy. If you can pick it up in Marks and Spencer's or you see it in the supermarket, then you expect it to be on your Christmas cruise and nearly swanning if it's something that you see advertised in the one up to Christmas, whether it's chocolates, gingerbread, cheese, etc.

Mark:

I think there's an expectation that that's the sort of thing that would be on there. Now for clarity we were on Cunard, yes, um, that's not to say that all cruise lines in that pre-period wouldn't have had mince pies or gingerbread or anything.

Mark:

This was that very specific cruise that we went on however, you did get a sherry trifle I did get a show which is very, very christmasy in the veranda, but that wasn't as part of the um, it wasn't part of the christmasy, but the the bit for me that I was surprised at from our particular cruise and I don't want to just dwell on this one cruise but was that there wasn't more sort of festive food type things going on, or festive cocktails? No, no, and I did expect that.

Linzi:

Now, as you say, Fidelity cocktails on the gala nights and things.

Mark:

But they're the same ones that we've had when we've been on in summer. Yeah, so they weren't specific to the time of year. Now, as you say, as we're getting the run up to Christmas closer and maybe, if you're on properly over the Christmas period, Do they suddenly whip out the mince pies?

Mark:

And festive cocktails. I'm not convinced they probably do all that shit. But yeah, if you've been on Cunard over the Christmas period actually that Christmas, new Year, etc. Let us know in the comments. Was there any specialty cocktails that were Christmassy? Were there mince pies and gingerbread? What did you get on Christmas Day? All those sort of bits and pieces.

Linzi:

Yes, so it's festive in a sense, because we got Aled Jones.

Mark:

We got Aled Jones. Not only did we get Aled Jones, and if you're listening from overseas and you're not familiar with Aled Jones, you might know the Snowman. I was about to say the Snowman animated film which has been around forever. Aled was famous for the Walking in the Air song, yes, and he put a performance on where he did a truncated version of the snowman and narrated it and then sang and that's about as festive as you can get. I felt very festive watching that. Yes, and he sang loads of carols.

Linzi:

Sang some carols and some classic Christmas songs. The carols are a bit.

Mark:

But it's a personal choice, isn't it?

Linzi:

Yeah, but come on, dial up the Christmas. Don't be singing your carols at us.

Mark:

I mean, what did you want him to sing?

Linzi:

I wanted him to sing something a little bit more Like.

Mark:

Up-tempo.

Linzi:

Just a bit more like up-tempo, just a bit more like that's what I call christmas something off that album well, just you know what I mean. I'm not saying, do they know it's christmas?

Mark:

it may be a bit more of a christmassy song but it was still a very christmassy thing and I can't imagine that you would ever get that on a cruise in summer. Christmas Carol, christmas Carol and the Snowman rendition I don't think anyone would. So I think that was a really good sort of experience of being on there.

Linzi:

Yeah, however, walking around the ship when you go to Disney World, you walk out of the lift and you get Christmas, christmas and Christmas. You're inundated with. You want to escape, actually to go in your room and lay down in a darkened room to get away from the Christmas but they do. That is what I was expecting on Cunard, on the ship and I don't think it's an Well.

Mark:

Maybe it's unrealistic to expect it to be Disney level, because you know Disney's Disney, but being closer to that than what it was, I'd say there were. Some of the decorations up the trees were fantastic. They were beautiful, very colourful. But other than the decorations and Ali Jones and the singers, when we got on no, they weren't singing, they were playing. No they were singing.

Linzi:

No, they were playing, there was no singing.

Mark:

They were singing. We'll beg to differ, but apart from that I didn't notice anything else on the cruise. So you had the decorations which played, you had Aled and you had the singers when we got on cruise. So you had the decorations, which was lovely, you had Aled and you had the singers when we got on. Yeah, Do you recall anything else that was specifically Christmassy?

Linzi:

The decorations were very classy when you walked on. They were, they were lovely they were very lovely and I think it was the band. As we walked on that I was like, oh my goodness, this is going to be peak Christmas, yeah. And then I got on and even a little nip of sherry would have been lovely. Just to walk onto to say, oh, it's cold outside, it's a warm ship, here's some sherry. Yeah, I would have liked.

Mark:

Because there wasn't really anything else also on that particular cruise that made you realise it was a Christmas cruise. There weren't like, any Christmas activities. There were no like, not even like, from a crafting point of view, making Christmas cards or something like that.

Linzi:

I'm not sure how popular that would have been.

Mark:

I suspect it had been very popular, but you know there wasn't anything.

Linzi:

There wasn't Like even into the Commodore Club was evening for pre-dinner drinks. The hors d'oeuvres were crisps. Now I'm not saying they should get out a prawn ring.

Mark:

From. Iceland, from Iceland, but they there's a croquet, not the country.

Linzi:

Yeah, I expected something Christmassy there.

Mark:

Yeah.

Linzi:

Am I expecting too much? Is that the problem?

Mark:

Well, that's part of what we're talking about here. What is it that makes a festive cruise? Because the other thing for us not dwelling on the ship too much is the ports and the reason we were going on it. Ours was amas markets cruise, going to a couple of european destinations where they had which are famous yeah, famous christmas markets, and the first one we went to was bruges, beautiful uh, which is a stunning place at any time. You know, we always love going to bruges. What did you think of the markets there? So that was our first. I say I'm fairly sure I don't remember doing there before.

Linzi:

I believe that was our first ever European Christmas market the funny thing is, if you were to to sort of take me, put a blindfold on me and drop me somewhere and say, right, we're at a Christmas market, and then had me blindfolded, taste the drinks and take in the atmosphere and taste the food, I couldn't tell you that it was when in the world? Where in the world I was.

Mark:

No, it could have just as easily been in our home city.

Linzi:

It could have been there or in Berlin. It would not have. I couldn't tell you.

Mark:

No, and I think if you'd have taken that blindfold off but not looked at the architecture, you also wouldn't have been able to know Whilst they are lovely. I think that the Christmas markets in the big cities there was a lack of sausage.

Linzi:

I felt there wasn't as much.

Mark:

Do you want to explain that a bit more? Breakfast sausage yes, we was. I saw one breakfast place um which I would have maybe expected more than that. Uh, but I think no mince pies, no one's pies either.

Linzi:

There was some great cheese but cheese is a staple at a christmas yeah, but that cheese that we tried was good it was, oh, it was truffle cheese.

Mark:

It was very good, very expensive, it was nice but it was very good.

Linzi:

It was very good. Very expensive, it was nice, but it was very good. But again, you can probably get a nice.

Mark:

You can probably get that in most places. Yeah, and what I would just say?

Linzi:

Well, there was a caviar stall though as well.

Mark:

There was a caviar stall. It was a caviar and foie gras, which is very fancy. There weren't many people going to that one. It was quite expensive and I've said that that were quite unique. I can also say I've not seen that you know the context, contents of the thing but? But I think from a design point of view, in terms of how the markets look, they've become that commoditized and commercialized now. Oh, they all just look festive, shed, festive sheds.

Linzi:

Oh sorry, cabin slash lodge, mini lodge, big shed.

Mark:

Festive shed, and that's the official title. When you're searching to buy one festive shed, please be careful. Putting that in. Festive shed should be okay.

Linzi:

I don't know.

Mark:

Probably not, but it was obviously very busy. But again, you go to a christmas market anyway, and they're all pretty much ramped at this time of year, would that be? We were that, we went, so before I asked that question. We then went to shareborg where there was meant to be another christmas market, but it actually didn't open for another couple of days so we could see them building it.

Linzi:

Yeah, you could see, you could see him building but you couldn't go to it wasn't?

Mark:

no, it wasn't. So we just had the one christmas market. But would a christmas market be a reason for you to want to go on a cruise in the future?

Linzi:

this is a good question, because I would, but I also would like that christmas market to.

Mark:

I don't know how I'm going to do it like come on board with me, excuse me, okay, so you have that full spirit going back to the ship.

Linzi:

Yeah, I guess, wheel some little stalls out and let me, for example, somebody might go to Bruges and drink a lot and then forget what they were supposed to be buying. Who would ever do that If there would have been things that maybe you've forgotten and you just would have liked to have picked up, or maybe not taken all around the city with you?

Mark:

I think this is a very specific thing to somebody who maybe drank too much in Bruges. Maybe let's get back to Christmas markets.

Linzi:

And, as I said, feeling like more part of that.

Mark:

Do you think that a river cruise is better suited to a festive cruise?

Linzi:

then when you're going right into the heart of it. I've not done a river cruise, but if that river cruise had mince pies or sherry on arrival or some kind of little sweet treats and some some festive cheese, then that's maybe how you win me over to getting me on a river cruise well, the reason that I'll say that?

Mark:

because you said a few minutes ago that the thought of it coming back on board with yeah, because you can actually just bring your things on board as well, you literally? Do that, but because you, you're docking in the heart of a city, you're not docking at a cruise port, you know, 25 minutes away yeah you're gonna literally walk straight into the market.

Mark:

So does it matter as much if it's not quite as festive on board like ours? Well, so it's decorated up and it's got a thing if every day you're walking straight into a new Christmas decorated city or town.

Linzi:

No, I want full festive. I want full festive, but I like maybe the river cruise is the way to go in respect of you. Could get up early doors, go to the Christmas markets, get gifts and things, then come back, maybe have a bit of lunch and then go back out again yeah, a lot of them will stay late into the night, so you get to experience the night time yeah, yeah, that might be, we didn't.

Linzi:

No, maybe that's the way, maybe that's the way to do it. I just, I just it didn't feel, I didn't. It's not that I didn't feel Christmassy. The crews didn't feel as Christmassy and as festive.

Mark:

As you would have expected, as I expected.

Linzi:

Yeah, A mince pie. What's that going to cost them? Hardly anything. Okay, there was quite a few thousand.

Mark:

Yeah, it's a few thousand mince pies to make.

Linzi:

But if they're just hard to even in the buffet, even just in the buffet?

Mark:

Yeah, I think the all mince pie when you get on. I would definitely like to ramp up how much they do on there. Let's say he's not, this is not taking.

Linzi:

The cruise was lovely, the ship was lovely, the decorations it's just if you sort of I just want to feel as a christmas I just want to feel full christmas, wherever I am on the ship so let's just break that down then, before we've gone to new stories.

Mark:

What would make the perfect christmas cruise for you then? What would you want from that, so that you also don't feel like when you're in disney, where you've got to escape into a darkened room to escape the all because, okay, that's a good you know, full-time christ couch?

Linzi:

yeah, yeah, yeah, so welcome, nice, nice welcome. Yeah, we got little drink. Little drink, it could have even been just a sparkly mimosa yeah, there's something like a water drink. Merry Christmas, here's a drink, here's a mince pie. Um, festive music being piped in the lips and things, and just as you wonder I'm definitely up for it being piped in the lifts um, just something doesn't have to be full on, you know, just something a little bit more christmasy music, wise um what about entertainment wise?

Mark:

well, we got allied, but maybe but what would you like to see on your perfect cruise?

Linzi:

Okay, so they had a silent disco.

Mark:

Yep.

Linzi:

Maybe they could have had.

Mark:

Silent Night, christmas Disco Don't sing your lines out.

Linzi:

I mean, you know it works, yeah, but it Not necessarily that song. It doesn't sound like it. No, no, it doesn't sound very fun.

Mark:

No.

Linzi:

I want it to be fun.

Mark:

Okay, now that's what I call my Christmas disco Silent.

Linzi:

Kind of yeah, Something like.

Mark:

What about quizzes, activities?

Linzi:

It's like a Christmas quiz. I don't even think there was one of those. Another one, stilton, like proper cheese.

Mark:

I'm feeling that you're being just very specific.

Linzi:

If I can't be specific about myself, who can I be specific about?

Mark:

Well, this is true.

Linzi:

France.

Mark:

Do you think an ocean cruise is a better one than a river cruise for being?

Linzi:

I don't know, we need to try a river cruise, but, in conclusion, we need to try a river cruise and then we have to do this podcast again, we have to do a summary one after we've done the Christmas market. Yes. So basically, if you're thinking about going on a Christmas market cruise and you want full Christmas, maybe a little fall night to brew shishnop no, maybe you just need it a little bit longer than that.

Linzi:

Oh, or go on it over Christmas but we don't know if they dial it up they probably have Santa up here, they've got Santa. There's some like really really good Christmas cocktails.

Mark:

I know different cruise lines do it differently and I know full well that if you get on a Disney cruise line over Christmas, it's gonna it'll be that same bit as what you talked about. When you go to Disney World You'll get Christmased out very quickly because they go that full hog on it. Yeah, but you know, but if that's what you want, yeah, but hide in your room.

Linzi:

So maybe it's just a case of checking out some videos in terms of and doing your own due diligence in respect of who does what at Christmas on a cruise ship. Also, in respect of which cities you're going to. Is the Christmas market open?

Mark:

Well, I feel that, as a bare minimum, the cruise line should do that.

Linzi:

I know, but somebody missed something somewhere. Okay, so then we're done.

Mark:

We will come back to this topic when we've done a river cruise, christmas markets one, okay, which will not be for at least another year because they'll all be shut now.

Linzi:

Yeah.

Mark:

Shall we do some news stories Because, as I say, we've no cruise confession this week.

Linzi:

Yes.

Mark:

News story number one. Thank you, royal Caribbean has banned more internet tech, oh dear. So if you recall, a couple of episodes back we talked about them banning the starlink minis, all the little mini ones that are like a tea tray yeah, like a tea tray, but you could get really fast internet yourself without having to pay the cruise line. Yes, I remember, yeah, which are very expensive and not always that great. No, so I get get why some people might want to take that. So, following the Starlink Mini one, they've expanded what they're banning.

Linzi:

Okay.

Mark:

So they're now banning little personal routers, little personal router.

Mark:

Well, it's because you can or router, or router. It's because you can tie them into your phone or use your phone's SIM in some ones and then use your own cellular plan to share the Wi-Fi with other people In your cabin. You're not going to walk around with it because it's still got to be plugged in, okay. But they've used the excuse of them banning this, that it helps prevent cybercrime. There was no expansion on how it prevents cybercrime and I'm not utterly convinced by that excuse, much more so about that. Again, it's forcing people to, if they want multiple device, buy a multiple device.

Linzi:

We all know what this is about.

Mark:

Okay. What they haven't really thought about when they're banning these sort of things is that your own phone can do personal hotspot sharing so I can connect to 5G and you could connect to my phone At sea More important, but theoretically at sea, I guess and you could use it there. So it seems a bit over the top that they're banning it for that reason. Again, for me it's just about them making sure that people use their packages, and if the packages were priced correctly and they were good, people will buy them. If they're expensive, people doubt.

Mark:

New story number two okay. Morella discovery 2 okay, has just had an extended refit. Nice, it got it. It went on a little bit longer because they ended up having to cancel the cruise. Okay, um, but they've completed a series of upgrades to about 40 percent ish of the cab, okay, so I'm guessing they'll do the other lot at some future one. And they've introduced a new entertainment option featuring an interactive play wall experience. Okay, so the life-size play wall is a free activity they're not charging free and gives anyone who wants to use it a choice of 28 games such as Totem Craft, where people build a high tone and rival goals, and other stuff aimed at both families and adults, because discovery 2 isn't adults only. At this point, no I think.

Mark:

What about it becoming that in 2026, um? So they partnered with this french, french game developer, which was quite interesting. The ships that they've done, which is about 370 of them, have all had new artwork put up, new decorating and all the bathrooms were completely renovated. So it'll be interesting 370 of 918.

Mark:

Rooms Rooms, okay, have been enhanced, fully upgraded New furniture, wall coverings, carpets, and the bathroom is completely renovated, okay, and it's across all different cabins from interior balcony up to the big suites.

Mark:

But I say it's only about a third of them. So if you're looking to book Discovery 2, then it's probably worth checking the room that you've got whether it is one of the upgraded ones, and there'll be plenty of things online within days telling you which ones have been done, yeah, and then making sure that you get one of them, because I would imagine it'll be a bit sad to get on and find out you've got one of the older ones, so it's not been done, but I thought it was quite interesting. The reason that I mentioned that is one about this new Playwall bit, which is quite interesting, especially when they're planning on going to an adult-only cruise soon. Yeah, it just sounds, but they only did about a third of the cabin. Okay, but they only did about a third of the cabin, okay, which normally they just do everything. Final news story and final news story of the year okay, so it has to be a Christmasy one nice.

Mark:

Carnival, have just announced what their Christmas treats are. Just yeah, when you're going on board over Christmas. They've introduced because obviously we've just been talking about special holiday menus, nice. Just yeah, okay, when you're going on board over Christmas. They've introduced yeah, because obviously we've just been talking about special holiday menus, nice, which include a variety of seasonal dishes that evoke traditional tastes and, as they've classed it, elevated favourites, as well as classic carnival dishes that are there. So for appetisers, they've done things such as a luxurious baked brie with cranberry, pecan crumble and fig and olive crostinis. Okay, I'll have one of those. Would you have one of those? Yeah, short ribs with yam croquettes and pear and mustard relish.

Linzi:

Okay, I'll give it a go.

Mark:

Deviled eggs with candied bacon, ooh, and a roasted pumpkin soup with brown butter and thyme. No. And then for entrees, your main courses. They've done classic holiday roast turkey with sage stuffing, giblet gravies, cranberry rolls, giblet gravy, proper gravy.

Linzi:

Proper like gravy, gravy.

Mark:

Which I thought were interesting because I knew obviously we were going to be talking about it today. I didn't know quite what we'd talk about, but they've done dedicated holiday menus no mince pie and no stilt. There was no mention of mince pie, there was no mention of stilt, but I'm fairly sure they don't. But they did have fig.

Linzi:

Okay, I like fig in certain ways so did any of those techie fancy.

Mark:

Was it the brie?

Linzi:

I like the sound of the big brie. Um, yeah, okay, I kind of get where they're coming from.

Mark:

Yeah and it'd be nice to see other cruise lines doing similar, and I'm sure other cruise lines are. Yeah, but that brings us up to the end of this cruise cast. It's only a short-ish one because, as I say, it's our final one of the year and then we'll be back in January.

Linzi:

Well, thank you for listening. Hope you have a lovely, lovely Christmas and Happy New Year and we'll be back in January, probably talking about where to go in January to escape the cold.

Mark:

How to avoid Christmas on a cushion. Where to avoid festive music.

Linzi:

Yeah, yeah.

Mark:

I'm not sure what we'll be doing, but maybe we'll cover that, okay. So in the meantime I'll play us out with a little mood music. I like it.